VLD Christmas Party
by Krasierisawesome
Summary: It's been a few years since they've defeated the galra, and most of the paladins have gone their separate ways. But Lance is determined to gather everyone up for Christmas.


There was a careful knock on Keith's door. He sat up on his couch, where he'd been lying for what felt like hours. Who could be at his apartment on a Sunday?

"Who's there?" he called.

There was a muffled reply.

Keith stood up and peered through the peephole in his door.

 _Lance._

He swung the door open. Lance stumbled in, carrying three overflowing boxes, which he promptly dropped onto the floor.

"What are you doing here?" Keith asked.

Lance looked up, slightly out of breath. A smile spread across his face as he panted. "I'm helping you set up everything."

"Everything? For what?"

He pulled one of the boxes open, and piles of tinsel flew out onto the floor.

"For Christmas," Lance said. "We're inviting the others."

"The….others?"

"Pidge, Matt, Shiro, Hunk, Allura, Coran…." he trailed off. "You know. The others."

"But we haven't spoken in like…." Keith paused for a moment to recall. "More than a year."

"Exactly," Lance said. "We meet up with the others every year to keep in touch. But we haven't met up yet this year." He opened another box and took out a ceramic statue of santa. "So I invited everyone to a Christmas party."

"In my apartment?"

"Well, we can't have it in mine," Lance said. "Too small. Too gloomy."

Keith fumbled for words. "Where did you get all this stuff?!"

"Thrift store. Now," he stood up and nudged Keith's shoulder. "Help me set it up."

"But….I don't….. Lance, I'm not throwing a Christmas party."

"Of course not." Lance tossed him a ball of tinsel. " _We're_ throwing a Christmas party."

"Can't we just do something small? You know, like we did last year?"

"Last year it was just you and me on Christmas," Lance reminded him. "This year, we need to make room for everybody."

"Didn't they all have plans? Pidge always spends Christmas with her family."

"Pidge took some persuading," Lance said. "I told her that she and Matt could bring their parents too."

"What?!" Keith grabbed Lance's arm to keep him from setting any other decorations up. "Lance! There isn't enough room in my apartment for so many people!"

"Come on, man," Lance said. "Please?"

"I'm not having a Christmas party," Keith insisted. "That's final."

Lance pouted.

"Besides," Keith continued. "Aren't you doing some sort of Christmas thing with your family?"

"Not until the 28th," Lance said. "My brother has bronchitis, and it'll take some time for that to clear up. On Christmas, I'll just be in my tiny apartment….alone…..watching _Die Hard_ and eating microwave popcorn."

"Shut up," Keith said. "You'll find something to do."

Lance shook his head. "Well, I guess I'll return all of this junk, then." He picked up a box, not bothering to close it. "Bye."

He slowly made his way towards the door.

"Wait," Keith said. His voice had betrayed him again. He spoke through gritted teeth, as if trying to prevent himself from speaking. "I guess….." he sighed. "We're throwing a Christmas party."

Lance's face lit up. He dropped the box and hugged Keith. "Thank you so much! I promise you won't regret it."

"Already do," Keith said. "This is likely the worst decision I've ever made."

"Not even in the top ten," Lance said quickly. "I'm going to get some more boxes, okay?"

"Okay," Keith muttered.

"I love you!"

That made Keith smile, though he made a conscious effort to hide it. His boyfriend was like an excited golden retriever around the holidays.

But it didn't matter. The party would eventually be done, and if Lance was happy, Keith would be happy too.

Lance poked his head back into the apartment. "By the way, they're coming for dinner on Christmas eve, and I told Pidge that she could bring her dog!"

Before Keith could react, Lance bolted back down the hall.

….

"Okay," Keith said, zipping up his jacket. "We're going to need a Christmas dinner, and we're going to need it to be big. What are you thinking?"

Lance followed after him, running up and down the sidewalk excitedly. "We could do a turkey….. And maybe some ham, too. And of course we'll need some side dishes."

"Like….stuffing?"

"What? No. Come on, Keith. It isn't Thanksgiving."

"Okay. Well, what were you thinking?"

Lance scanned the signs on the outside of every store. "We could make some damn good lasagna. And I know how to make a dutch apple pie."

"What about a blueberry pie?"

Lance scoffed. "Who do I look like, Gordon Ramsay?"

The confused expression on Keith's face made Lance chuckle to himself.

"Let's just go to the nearest supermarket," Keith decided. "We'll probably find what we need inside."

They walked on together in silence. Cars passed by, leaving trails of exhaust. Pedestrians came and went everywhere. Keith usually didn't leave his apartment on Sundays. There were always too many people out and about.

Lance looked at Keith and smiled.

"What?" Keith asked.

"I love you so much," Lance said.

That took Keith by surprise, but he responded on instinct. "I love you too."

Lance grabbed Keith's hand and continued walking down the street.

Keith laughed. "You're such a dork."

When they reached the supermarket, it was even more crowded than the streets. It seemed that they weren't the only ones doing last minute Christmas shopping.

"This is great," Keith said sarcastically.

"It'll be okay," Lance promised. "I go to the store on Sunday all the time. We just have to go in, get what we need, and get through the checkout as quickly as possible.

"But we don't know what we need," Keith reminded him. "And the lines will be a mile long. Maybe we should just-"

"Nope." Lance hooked their arms together and pulled Keith into the store. "We're going."

It was just as terrible as Keith had feared. People were fighting over Christmas presents, arguing about sales, and throwing things at each other. Keith had to duck to avoid a flying bunch of carrots.

"Who the hell throws _carrots_?!"

Lance laughed.

"Shut up," Keith told him. "Let's just get a turkey."

"Whatever you say."

They tried to run towards the poultry section, but they were surrounded by a crowd.

"Split up?" Lance said, a hint of adventure in his voice.

Keith groaned miserably. "Yeah. Split up."

"I'll get some frozen lasagna." Lance turned and bolted towards the frozen food section.

Keith slowly forced his way towards the turkeys and grabbed the first one he could get his hands on.

"Okay," he said to himself. "That's taken care of. Now, I just need to find some…." He looked around, not sure where to go next. There were too many people to see where anything was. A little kid raced past, nearly tripping him.

"Pies," he decided. "I'll get some pies."

He made his way towards the sign that read, "Bakery." He was suddenly wishing he'd remembered to grab a cart, though it would have been impossible to move it around the crowded place anyway.

 _A basket,_ he thought. _I should have grabbed a basket._

He looked around for Lance, who was probably somewhere at the other end of the store. Finally, he made his way to the pies and grabbed the ones that were left.

"Come on, Keith," he scolded himself. "You've fought aliens and machines, you can get through some last-minute Christmas shopping."

It must have taken hours for him to gather up everything and find Lance again, and it probably took at least another hour to get through the checkout.

"Your total comes to $247.28," the cashier said.

Keith's jaw almost dropped.

"Do we get a discount if we used to be paladins of voltron?" Lance asked.

The cashier raised her eyebrows.

"Okay," Lance said. "I'll take that as a _no_."

…

"Okay," Keith said, out of breath. "We made it. We got the turkey, the ham, the frozen lasagna, and the pies." He spread his arms, thankful to be back in his semi-quiet apartment. "And I'll be in debt for the rest of my life. Did you know that the turkey alone costs over thirty dollars?"

"You didn't have to buy pies from the bakery," Lance complained, ignoring Keith's question. "I would have made some."

"Trust me, I know you would have. But we have enough work to do, okay?" He checked the clock. "It's late. Let's put this stuff in the fridge and go to sleep."

That wasn't going to happen, of course. They put the food in the fridge, and Lance left to go back to his own apartment, but Keith didn't sleep. Keith rarely ever slept when he was supposed to.

He tossed and turned, and he _tried_ to sleep, but he couldn't.

Sometimes, the only way he could fall asleep was in the middle of the afternoon, curled up on his couch, watching a movie. But even then, he usually wouldn't sleep long enough.

He decided to stand up and start pacing. Pacing would clear his head.

But it didn't. So he continued to pace until his legs grew tired, and he sat back down on his bed.

He reached for his phone. Almost immediately, a text popped up from Lance.

 _Dude, why aren't you asleep?_

He raised his eyebrows at the text, giving his eyes a chance to adjust to the brightness of the phone screen.

 _How do you know I'm not asleep?_

… _.Because….I can feel your energy from here. It's very unpleasant._

 _Come on, Lance._

 _Fine. You know that dude who lives in the room under you? He called me and said, "Your boyfriend is stomping around in his room, and it's keeping me awake."_

 _I wasn't stomping._

 _Well, regardless, you need to go to bed. Otherwise, that guy will call me again, and I'll never get to sleep either._

Keith hesitated before responding. He was almost tempted to ask Lance to come back to his room, but he didn't.

 _Okay. Goodnight._

 _Love you._

Keith's heart pounded.

 _Love you too._

...

There was a familiar knock on Keith's door. He forced himself to get out of bed, and went to let Lance in.

"Dude," Lance said. "Your mullet is a mess again."

"I just got up."

"Did you sleep at all?"

Keith shook his head.

"Well," Lance sighed. "First things first, you have to take a shower."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm going to be honest with you. You just got out of bed, and you smell like crap."

Keith scoffed, then almost shut the door. Lance stuck his shoe in to keep it open.

"It's alright," Lance said. "Just get in the shower. I'll start cooking the turkey."

"You don't know how to cook a turkey,"

"Are you kidding me right now? I'm Cuban, Keith. I can cook a turkey better than you can cook anything."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah," Lance forced his way in. "Really. Now, get in the shower before the dude downstairs complains about the smell."

Keith took a pillow off of the couch and threw it at Lance.

Lance grunted. "Hey!"

Keith bolted into the bathroom before his boyfriend could return the blow.

"I'll get you for that!" Lance shouted.

So, Keith did what he was told. He took a shower, brushed his teeth, and even combed his hair. It was Christmas eve, which meant that the others would be arriving in the evening for dinner. Shiro wouldn't want to see his little brother looking like a mess.

But what if Shiro was different now? What if everyone was different? After all, they hadn't spoken in over a year. The only reason they were seeing each other again was because of Lance.

Splitting up had always been difficult. Pidge and Matt had gone back home to their parents. Shiro had stayed at the garrison to train new recruits. Allura and Coran had stayed in North Dakota to build new lives. For some reason, neither of them had wanted to return to space. Allura insisted that earth was the best place to start over. Hunk had gone back to his family, and Shay had even joined him. And, of course, Keith and Lance had gone together to live in the city. Almost everyone had gone their separate ways. What if everyone was different now?

Keith had to remind himself that he had once been gone with Krolia for two years on a mission. Sure, it hadn't felt that long to the others, but it had still been quite a lot of time, and they'd gotten through it just fine.

 _Don't worry about it,_ he told himself. _Seeing everyone again will be great._

He opened the door to leave the bathroom, and immediately he was hit in the face with a pillow.

"Dude!"

"I told you I'd get you for that," Lance said proudly.

Keith tackled him, knocking him to the ground. Lance grabbed another pillow to defend himself, but Keith grabbed his shoulder and they rolled across the floor.

Finally, Lance pinned Keith to the ground. With a cry of victory, he shoved a pillow into his boyfriend's face. Keith tangled their legs together and pushed Lance off, struggling to stand up again.

"You'll regret that!" Lance said.

They continued wrestling for several minutes, until Lance finally surrendered when Keith pinned him to the ground. Both of them were laughing.

"Were you waiting outside of the bathroom the whole time?!" Keith asked.

"Yeah," Lance wheezed, nearly choking on his own laughter. "Pretty much."

Keith looked up towards the oven. "Is the turkey cooking?"

Lance pushed Keith off of him and sat up, his face slowly turning serious. "About that," he began.

"Ha! You can't cook after all, can you?"

Lance scoffed. "Of course I can cook. I can cook just fine. It's just…. Well, your oven is confusing."

Keith stood up and walked to the kitchen. "It's really not. It's just a standard oven." He turned one of the dials to heat up the oven. "See?"

Lance pointed to a red light next to one of the dials that was flashing. "What's that for?"

Keith's smile faded. "Something's wrong." He opened the oven, and a stream of smoke flew out.

Lance coughed. "I'm pretty sure a standard oven isn't supposed to do that."

"No, no, no, no, no!" Keith shouted, reaching for a towel. "What's wrong with it?!"

Smoke also started coming from the stove. Lance grabbed a glass of water and flung it at the source, causing an eruption of flames.

"Why is there _more_ fire?!" Lance screamed.

Keith hit the fire with the towel, but that only spread the fire to the counter, then the cupboards, then the ceiling.

Lance ran out into the hall and grabbed a fire extinguisher. He then proceeded to spray it at everything in Keith's apartment.

Finally, the flames died.

Both of them were out of breath. Lance looked up at the ceiling, where there were many visible charred spots.

"Man," Lance said. "This building's fire alarm is really useless, isn't it?"

As if to answer his question, the fire alarm went off.

"What?! But we just put the fire out!" Lance shouted.

Keith put his head in his hands and started to make his way towards the door.

Lance coughed. "This is probably a terrible time to mention this, but I told Veronica, Acxa, and Romelle that they could come too."

"What?!"

…

"This is a disaster," Keith exclaimed, dropping onto his couch. It had taken nearly all day to clear up everything, and the room still smelled like smoke. "We have no way to cook dinner, I didn't have time to buy anyone gifts, and my apartment isn't going to fit everyone!"

"Calm down," Lance said. "We'll work this out."

"No, we won't! We should just cancel, okay?"

Lance didn't respond. He walked over and sat down next to Keith.

"Just go away," Keith told him. "I need space right now."

Lance looked hurt, but he obeyed. He closed the apartment door softly behind him.

Keith huffed and threw his head back onto his pillow. What had he been thinking? Of course nothing would work out. Nothing ever seemed to work out. Why had they even bothered making plans?

He lay there a few more moments, trying to keep the answer out of his mind. He _knew_ why. He knew the reason they had tried so hard to make things work.

Because he _did_ want to see the others again, and he wanted to make Lance happy. Since Krolia had returned to the blade of marmora, the other paladins had been his family. He _ached_ to see them again at least once a year.

But not on Christmas eve. Not at _his_ apartment. It was too small and too messy. And he wasn't a very good party planner.

He looked at the clock again. It was getting later. Soon, it would be almost time for dinner. The others would be almost arriving, but Lance would have to call and give them the bad news.

The turkey was gone too. It had been destroyed partly by the fire, and completely by the extinguisher.

He stood up and started angrily pacing. He wondered from time to time what would have happened if he'd stayed with the blade. He could be doing something useful, something with meaning. He could be with his mom and Kolivan, going on adventures and saving planets. Sure, there weren't as many enemies to fight now that the galra were defeated, but the blade always had missions.

Why had he settled back on earth?

…

There was a knock on his door - again.

"Go away," Keith muttered.

There was another knock, this time more persistent.

"I told you to go away."

He heard Shiro's voice on the other side. "Keith?"

Keith jumped up and swung the door open. Sure enough, Shiro was standing right in front of him, looking the same way he had more than a year ago.

Keith hugged him, and Shiro laughed.

"Lance sent me to come get you," Shiro said.

"What? Why? I told him to cancel." He gestured inside. "My oven started a fire, the turkey's ruined, and…" He noticed the expression on Shiro's face. "What?"

Shiro shrugged. "Lance told me he had a surprise for you. Come on."

Keith was skeptical, but he knew he owed Lance an apology anyway, so he followed Shiro out the door.

"Why are we going to Lance's apartment?" Keith asked when they entered the apartment building that Lance lived in.

"We're not. You'll see."

Instead of going to the tiny room on the bottom floor where Lance lived, Shiro led Keith up the stairs to the top floor.

"Shiro," Keith said. "This is where the nice rooms are."

Shiro raised an eyebrow before opening one of the doors.

Inside, everyone was gathered around the living room, talking and laughing. Allura had taken a special interest in Pidge's dog, and was currently feeding him sugar cookies.

Lance's face brightened up when he saw Keith, and he waved him over.

"What's going on?" Keith asked, looking around. "Did you break into one of the nice apartments?"

"No," Lance said. "This is my apartment now."

"But… You told me you couldn't afford anything like this."

"I've been saving up for it," Lance confessed. "Besides, there is a reason, but that's for later."

"But-"

Lance held up his hand. "Let me finish. You were right. I never should have forced you into throwing a party. You're just not that type of person."

"Lance-"

"But I know everyone wanted to see each other for Christmas, and I owe you an apology for breaking your oven."

"You didn't break the oven," Keith said. "It's just a crappy oven."

Lance laughed. "Well, I thought it would help if I saved the party, so…" he gestured towards the kitchen. I made dinner. And I made some pies, too."

"But- I mean-...How?"

"I told you, Keith. I'm Cuban. I can pull anything off."

Keith didn't know how to respond to that, so he just hugged his boyfriend. "Thank you. I'm sorry I overreacted."

Lance chuckled. "Can I say I told you so?"

Keith sighed. "Don't ruin the moment, Lance."

"Well, you should try some pie. It's much better than any of those bakery pies."

Keith laughed.

…

"Hey, Keith!" Lance said, finishing his slice of pie. "I bet your senses aren't as sharp as they used to be."

Keith raised his eyebrows. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Lance set his plate down. "Back when we were in space, you could fight someone with your eyes closed. You could tell where everyone was and what they were doing without even looking."

"So? I can still do that."

" _Sure_ ," Lance said with a sly smile.

"Absolutely."

Lance held up a dish rag. "Prove it, then. This is a blindfold."

"That's a towel."

"It's a _blindfold_ ," Lance insisted. "And you have to put it on and tell me where everyone is and what they're doing."

"Fine," Keith said. "Everyone, move around the room and do something different. I guarantee I can figure it out."

Lance tied the towel around Keith's head, blocking his vision. "Alright, you ready?"

Before Keith could respond, Lance spun him around several times, then walked away.

"Okay," Keith regained his balance. He took a deep breath, listening closely to everything around him.

"Any time, now, Samurai," Lance said.

"Pidge and Matt are next to each other. Allura is in the corner, laughing," Keith said. "Veronica is finishing pie. She's still sitting on the couch. Shiro just gasped." He turned his head to find Lance's voice. "And you're sitting on the floor in front of me."

"Not sitting," Lance said, his tone still had a hint of humor.

Keith paused. "Why is everyone so quiet all of a sudden?"

He heard Romelle nearly fall out of her chair. Shiro came up behind him and took off the blindfold.

In front of him, Lance was down on one knee, holding up a little box with a ring in it. The diamond was the shape of a star.

"You're-" Keith's voice failed him.

"Keith," Lance grinned, trying to prevent himself from shaking. "I love you."

"Lance-"

Lance held up his hand. "Let me finish."

Pidge was smiling ear to ear, elbowing Matt in the ribcage. Everyone seemed to hold their breath.

"I love everything about you," Lance continued. "I love your edgy emo moments. I love your smile. I love you stupid mullet and your stupid dreamy eyes."

Keith held his hand to his face to keep himself from crying.

"I love every moment of every day that I get to spend with you." Lance kept talking, as if he had rehearsed it. "I love coming to your apartment and eating chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. I love running around the city with you, trying to avoid the crowds. I love cuddling with you on the couch and falling asleep while watching _Love Simon_ for the 80th time because it's just so damn good."

Keith couldn't stop it. He was crying.

"We've been dating for two years, and it's been the best time of my life. Keith, I love you more than there are stars in the sky. And that sounds cheesy as hell, but trust me, I've seen all the stars up there, and there are a lot." Lance took a deep breath, letting out something between a laugh and a sob before continuing. "There's a reason I chose to get this apartment. I was hoping you would like it enough to stay. You're my favorite person in the whole world. I love kissing you, hugging you, laughing with you…. I love doing everything with you. So, what do you say? Keith Kogane, will you marry me?"

Keith wanted to look away so that Lance wouldn't see what an emotional mess he was.

Veronica sat up, fully aware of what was about to happen. No one said anything, but the silence was slowly killing them. They waited for Keith to say something- anything. Yes? No? Was he about to break down crying?

Keith knelt down slowly, grabbing Lance's face in his hands. "You're such a dork," he whispered.

Lance grinned. "Is that a yes?"

Keith planted a kiss on Lance's lips, wiping the tears from both of their faces. "Yes," he managed.

Everyone stopped holding their breath. Pidge and Hunk cheered. Shiro hugged Matt, who winced in pain. Acxa high-fived Veronica. Allura laughed and gave Pidge's dog another cookie.

Lance couldn't stop smiling. He took the ring out of the box and slipped it on Keith's finger. Keith kissed him again, and neither one of them was eager to stand back up.

Nothing had gone as planned, but everyone would always remember it in a positive light. Keith and Lance were engaged, and no kind of broken oven or scheduling conflict could interfere with that.

Then, Lance reached for a pillow and stuffed it in Keith's face. Keith reacted quickly, grabbing Lance by the waist and pulling him down to the ground.

Everyone else cheered while the boys wrestled and laughed. It ended the same way it had before, with Keith pinning Lance to the ground. But this time, Lance pulled Keith's face down and kissed him.

"Aww," Romelle said. Allura nudged her in the side.

Lance then grabbed the pillow back and hit Keith in the head with it. Keith fell to the side, surprised, but he recovered quickly.

He was _so_ going to marry this man.


End file.
